


A Pirates Life

by nephilimswitchlight



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Lack of Communication, M/M, Misconceptions, Misunderstandings, Navy Captain Leonard Snart, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pirate Barry Allen, Slow Build, Space Pirates, well kinda
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-18 04:56:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18242819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nephilimswitchlight/pseuds/nephilimswitchlight
Summary: Pirate Captain Bartholomew Allen has had a lifetime's worth of experience, most of which has been governed by a fascist dictatorship in a country that used to be home. It has led him to lose faith in most people and believe that trust is a gift, one that he doesn't hand out easily.An impulsive decision to save the life of American Federation Arial and Space Naval Captain Leonard Snart had him thinking that maybe it was time to have a little faith again, to give regular old humans another try. He begins to regret that choice as soon as he figures out that the man was such an insufferable jackass.Despite their clash of wills and opinions, they agree to team up against a common enemy. Its a sketchy alliance at best fraught with tension and mistrust that may just end very, very badly. Well, if Bar doesn't toss the other captain off of his ship first.





	A Pirates Life

**Author's Note:**

> So I just spent an accumulative thirteen hours in a car the last two days in order to go to a doctors appointment and I wrote this out by hand because I forgot my computer and couldn't work on any of my current stories. It was a self challenge using a list of random words made from a game of Banana Grams and was meant to be a cute little thing but has somehow become a giant epic of love, distrust and self discovery. Hope you enjoy!

                Captain Bar Allen leaned over the edge of his ship as one of the pod boats rested on the ground in order to fix the one of her floater sails. A piece of his longer hair fell over his eyes and he pushed it back to brush against the shaved underside while worrying his lip between his teeth. Apprehension at the extent of the damage filled him and he had to resist the urge to vibrate his tapping fingers against the railing.

                They were lucky it hadn’t been Thawne’s full force they had come across. If they had it likely would have been far more damage. They would likely have been in a much worse state then temporarily grounded.

                A throat clearing behind him had him turning to face his best friend and Lieutenant Cisco Ramon who gave a small smile and nodded towards the infirmary.

                “He’s awake.”

                “Is he doing okay?”

                Cisco shrugged. “He thinks he’s a captive. Like I told you he would.”

                Bar gave a small roll of his eyes and backed away from the railing. “Thanks for the heads-up Cisco.”

                “No problem.” He gave a sarcastic solute as Bar passed him on his way down to the first floor, to which the Captain replied in kind and called over his shoulder.

                “Go help Hartley!” and laughed at the exasperated outcry his friend gave.

                As he neared the infirmary, their resident doctor’s icy voice filled the halls sharply and he hurried his pace to peer into the open doorway.

                “They may call you Captain Cold, Snart,” she was saying, one hand raised as a white freezing mist appeared. “But if you don’t get your ass back in that bed, I’ll show you what cold _really_ means.”

                Bar snorted in amusement at her dramatics and stepped into the room, placing a soft touch to the blonde’s shoulder. “Its okay Kijone. No need to threaten our guest.”

                The man before him snorted derisively and Bar turned to face him.          

                Despite the bandages around his chest and burnt up deep blue uniform pants, American Federation Arial and Space Naval Captain Leonard Snart was even more undeniably gorgeous than his file pictures had even begun to be able to capture.

                He was clearly in pain and his impressively muscled torso covered in bulky white, but the defiance and command in his unearthly blue eyes was what really drew Bar to him. They were so much more striking in person. Icy, bright and currently glaring at Bar as if he wanted to murder him. The effect was lost on the Captain though, who instead had a hard time not being immediately pulled into his alluring orbit.

                “Glad to see you’re up Captain Snart.” He said instead of the slew of come-on’s that were at the tip of his tongue.

                “I will not be held captive by pirates.” He spat, his tony icy and defiant enough to match his eyes.

                Bar arched a pierced brow. “If you were a captive, I don’t believe you would really have a choice, would you? As it is, you’re not a prisoner.”

                Snart gave his own incredulous look. “And I’m supposed to believe you?”

                He shrugged. “Why would I lie?”

                “Because you’re a pirate!”

                “And that automatically makes me a liar?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest as his posture tightened.

                “It makes you nothing more than an outlaw and a criminal.”

                Bar’s jaw clenched and he had to take a deep breath to hold in the anger and hurt at the statement. He let it out with a false smile and instead said simply. “An honest one.”

                “In my experience, that’s an oxymoron. No matter how much you deny it, you’re all thieves and wanted men who lie through their teeth to save your own hides. Can’t change those stripes.”

                “And in mine, a non-bigoted, respectful and understanding member of the American Federalists, especially a military man, is one as well because no matter how much _you_ all deny it, you’re fascists and shockingly have no desire to change yours.  I guess we’ll both have to believe in the impossible, hmm?”

                Snart glared at him and attempted to mirror his body language, but winced as the movement caused pain. Instead he tightened his fists and lifted his head as high as he could. “There is no reason for me to believe you, you attacked my ship.  I shouldn’t trust a word you say, or owe you shit.”

                “Thawne attacked your ship!” Bar snapped, lifting himself higher as well, successfully mirroring Snart and only barley keeping the thrum of his powers at bay. “I saved your ass from plummeting to the ground like a meteor and got my ship grounded in the process. So really, in the least, you owe me a damn thank you!”

                His eyes widened and posture softened minutely as he asked warily, “You’re not Thawne’s?”

                The air behind him cooled significantly as Kijone finally snapped, her voice hissing out. “How dare you! I could forgive the rest of your vile words, but to say we are _Thawne’s_!”

                “It’s okay.” Bar told her gently, turning his head to give her a soft reassuring smile. “No need to get frosty.”

                Only when she nodded and the cold field evaporated did he turn back to Snart with an incredulous look. “You don’t know who I am?”

                “Should I?”

                Bar grinned and gave a dramatic bow. “Captain Bartholomew Allen. Welcome aboard The Speedforce Leonard Snart.”

                “You’re ‘The Lightning Captain’!” he gasped, shock showing only in the even larger widening of his eyes.

                He cocked his head and broadened his grin. “What, not what you were expecting? Is it the jacket?” he lifted the lapel of his red waist length trench coat that hung open to reveal the tight black material beneath. “Or maybe the piercings? Oh, I know, it’s the rugged good looks. You were expecting some gnarled ghastly monster to fit the dastardly pirate, am I right?”

                “It’s the fact that you’re a kid.” He replied dryly and Bar hissed in a breath at the statement.

                He covered it up by gasping dramatically, bringing his left hand to rest on his chest. “Ouch! Rude! Just because I’m not an alluring silver fox like you doesn’t mean that I am a child Snart.”

                Snart rolled his eyes. “Sure, then, _kid_ , we’ll go with it being the jacket.” He replied sarcastically.

                Bar’s smile wavered momentarily at the drawled, obvious insult but he brought it back to a wide grin not even a second later. Reaching up a finger that still laid against his collarbone he pressed it into the invisible sensor on the equally invisible cross body strap that he wore, willing it to transform his clothes into a mirror image of what the AFAS Naval Captain’s uniform was.

                “Is this any better?” he asked as the image settled, tone just as sarcastic as Snart’s had been.  

                He gasped. “How did you do that?”

                “That’s a secret dear Captain. Though maybe your uniform is a bit too much?”

                He again tapped the censor to shift him into plain, simple clothes of loose cotton pants and a plain short sleeved shirt. “What about this?”

                “The scarlet is fine, Allen.” He grit out, and Bar couldn’t tell if he was more frustrated, annoyed or confused. Probably a mixture of all three.

                So, he grinned and changed his clothes back to their original state and ignored the other man’s feelings entirely. “Excellent! Well, now that we both know who each other are, have silently decided to reluctantly trust one and other, and are no longer unnecessarily shooting insults, how about you get back into that bed and let my doctor take a look at you. She needs to make sure you didn’t disconnect or pull anything during your attempt to escape your not capture.”

                Snart eyed him and then Kijone distrustfully. “I really don’t want her anywhere near me.”

                Bar’s forced smile dropped entirely and he replied almost sharply. “Oh, don’t worry. She won’t be.” He turned to her and nodded, taking no small amount of satisfaction at Snart’s gasp as she melted into Caitlin.

                “Everything good?” she asked cautiously and Bar nodded.

                “We’re good.” He looked back at Snart. “Snart, this is Doctor Caitlin Snow, she _will_ be treating you. That is, if you prefer to continue living instead of dying from your fall into Earth’s atmosphere. The nice blonde was her frosty counterpart, Kijone.”

                “And she can’t turn me into an ice cube like this?”

                “No, she’s much more docile. Caitlin’s power is that incredible brain of hers.”

                “Shush you.” She said playfully with a fond roll of her eyes before pointing at Snart. “And you, get back on that bed. Much further and you would have torn out the sensors and we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

                He hesitated for a moment, looking around his body in confusion before asking, “What sensors?”

                Caitlin walked around Bar and with a gentle hand guided the injured captain to the bed. He seemed to hesitatingly let her do so, warily watching her hands as she unwound the bandages that were wrapped around him.

                “These sensors.” She replied as she removed the last bandage to reveal a thin layer of metallic like material across his abdomen that seemed to be lit up with an array of dancing rainbow lights.

                “The hell is this!” he gasped, hands going to remove it, but they were quickly caught by Caitlin, who shook her head.

                “They’re nanites.” Bar replied. “Partially designed by Caitlin here.”

                “They’re controlled by a central sensor.” She explained, pointing above them to a small disc reflecting the same color pattern. “They’re healing you on a cellular level. You’ll be good as new soon.”

                “That really should have killed me.” He whispered, voice slightly awed.

                “And it would have, if Bar didn’t make us rescue you.” Caitlin told him bluntly, to which said Captain just grinned.

                “I did say you should at least thank me.”

                Snart stared at him for a moment before nodding. “You’re right. Thank you, Allen.”

                Bar waved the words away. “Don’t strain yourself. It’s no big deal. Professional courtesy and all that. Now if you both would excuse me, I need to go check on the repairs.”

                “I want to know what’s going on.” Snart practically demanded before Bar could exit the doorway. He hesitated a moment before turning back around and giving a brief nod.

                “And you will, but first you need to heal and I have duties to my ship. Caitlin can bring you to the dinning hall when you’re healed.”

                He left quickly before Snart could attempt to stop him and hurried back up onto the deck.

                The first thing he noticed was that the pod was still deployed to the ground below them and frowned before making his way to one of the bright red lines tied along the railing. He unraveled it from its mooring and with a heave of his upper body, propelled himself off of the deck. He swung down the many stories of his ship until he reached the ground, touching down gently on the grass.

                Hartley and Cisco noticed him instantly, their bickering ceasing as he made his way to them.

                “What’s wrong?” he asked immediately and Cisco gave him a frustrated, almost sad look.

                “We can’t fix the floater here Bar. It’s pretty bad.”

                Bar bit his lip and then tapped into the power that moved both he and his ship and ran up the strong canvas and metal enforced wood of the floater sail protruding from the hull until he was stopped beside the damage. A giant tear was shredded through the connecting supports. The whole wing was holding on by barely a thread.

                Surveying the damage took him all of a second before he was back by his scientists, the frown on his face matching theirs.

                “No, we really can’t.” he replied to Cisco, and Hartley spoke up with a nod.

                “We need to get back to Central.” He said. “Ciscquito and I need to design and build whole new floaters, especially if this is a weakness Thawne knows and can continue to exploit.”

                “We’re no where near an ocean, and this thing cannot fly for long like that.”

                “Fifteen seconds.” Cisco supplied. “And to make matters worse, we’re on Federation soil, just far enough inland that we can barley make it to the Atlantic in that time.”

                “And only if we use the Speedforce Engines.” Bar concluded for him. “Okay, you two get the crew mobilized. I’m going to go make sure our guest can handle the speed.”

                “Oh, so he _is_ our guest now?” Cisco remarked with an amused look.

                Bar snorted and grabbed the swing rope. “He thought we we’re Thawne.”

                He gave a genuine laugh at their almost identical indignant squawks and propelled himself upwards.

                As soon as he touched down to the smooth wood, he pulled up his right sleeve and tapped the glass surface of the band around his wrist until the hologram of his AI appeared.

                “Gideon, is Leonard Snart still in the infirmary?”

                “He is Captain Allen.”

                “Thanks.”

                She nodded as her image faded back into nothing and he made his way back below deck.

                “How is he doing Cait?” he asked as soon as the door had materialized open.

                Caitlin smiled as he entered but Snart gave first the door and then him a surprised look.

                “You weren’t gone long.” He remarked skeptically and Bar shrugged.

                “Didn’t need to be.”

                “He’s healing well.” Caitlin answered his initial question before frowning. “Why, is something wrong?”

                “The left wing is destroyed. We need to use SpeedTime to get to the ocean so that we can go home to fix it.”

                “Oh no.” she said softly, giving him a sad eyed glance. “Will we lose it?”

                “Almost absolutely.” He replied, unable to keep the grief from his voice.

                “What’s speed time? What’re you talking about?” Snart demanded and Bar had to resist giving an exasperated huff.

                “The sail, or floater wing as I call it, from our left side that helps us stay airborne is too damaged for regular flight. My ship is equipped with something called the speedforce by a one of a kind engine, which is where it gets its name from. Using that, and my own connection to the same speedforce, I can enter something that we call SpeedTime to travel great distances in no time at all while to me it seems as if everything is moving normally. I can make fifteen seconds last minutes, hours even if I have enough energy.”

                “So that’s why she’s considered the fastest ship?” Snart asked, his tone insinuating that the revelation made her no longer impressive and Bar shook his head with a harsh look.

                “No, she’s the fastest because she’s the best designed and piloted ship in existence. She’s unnaturally fast because I am the best Captain for her.” He flickered his eyes along Snart’s body before raising an eyebrow, daring him to dispute the claim.

                Caitlin giggled and he flashed her a smile before nodding towards her patient. “Will he be fine to travel through it?”

                “Just have Gideon notify me right before we enter SpeedTime and I can put the nanites on stasis.”

                “Who is Gideon?”

                “You are just full of questions, aren’t you?” Bar asked and received an icy stare full of annoyance and anger in return.

                “Well, forgive me for wanting to know what’s going on.” He snarked to which Bar shrugged.

                “And normally I would. Yet, here I am, completely unable to as I try not to give too much information out to people who make it very clear that they see me as nothing more than a lowlife criminal and who could very likely turn around and use it against me, merely because of who I am.”

                “You _are_ a criminal.” Snart stressed indignantly as if Bar didn’t understand the simple concept.

                He took a calming breath and rolled his eyes, fed up with the reiteration of his Federation wanted status. “Gideon is my AI. I’ll have her let you know Cait.”

                He nodded towards his friend and then strode from the room.

                Rescuing Snart had been an almost entirely impulsive decision, one that all of his closest friends aboard The Speedforce had advised against in the few moments they had had a chance to. He had ignored them though and had ran up to catch the Captain himself. Despite telling both his team and Snart that it had been a professional courtesy, Bar himself knew that it was much more than that. Whether or not it was a left-over bit of the hero complex from his home and old life, or the admiration bordering on a crush on who seemed to be the one decent AFAS Captain he wasn’t sure, but he was beginning to regret bringing him on board his ship.

                He didn’t regret saving his life, would never regret saving a life even if said life was turning out to be far less sympathetic than he had originally believed. But taking a chance on him being different then all of his fellow military men, on him not holding the same prejudices as the others? That he was almost certainly regretting.

                He would never be anything more than an outlaw to the other captain, despite the only laws he has ever broken being the more barbaric ones of the American Federation. That would never matter to a man who saw the fascist dictator’s laws as gospel. The law was the law after all, no matter how inhuman, and those who disobeyed burned for it.

                His frustration and almost hurt must have showed on his face as he reached the Control Deck, as immediately after noticing him Cisco gave him another one of his sad frowns.

                “Snart?”

                He just hummed dismissively as he dropped himself into his chair and swiped his hand in from of himself, causing the gleaming metal control panel to materialize over his lap. “Is the crew ready?”

                “You going to not just act like I said nothing?” Cisco asked instead of answering.

                Bar groaned and his head hit against the back of the chair in order to stare up at the other. “What do you want me to say Cisco? Yes, Snart is exactly as pro law and anti us as you said he would be. Yes, he’ll never see any other side of the story? That it was a risk to bring him aboard? I’m well aware of it all, thank you, but I won’t regret or apologize for saving his life.”

                “Barry-.” Cisco began but instantly cut off at the Captain’s harsh glare. “Bar. I don’t want you to feel like you’ve done something wrong.”

                “But you want me to know that I did anyway?”

                “No.” he shook his head. “I want to make sure you’re okay because I am your friend.”

                He gave a long sigh and his shoulder’s sagged. “I guess there’s a bit of Central’s star eyed hero left in me still Cisco. I still want to give humanity a chance, even if it’s foolish.”

                “You know, that’s not a bad thing, right?” Cisco replied softly and Bar shook his head.

                “It is in this world. Optimism is futile at best. About time I learned that.” He said just as softly, then squared his shoulders, and ran his fingers over the panel before him, in order to bring up the holographic controls that his eyes locked onto.

                “So, Lieutenant, are the crew all ready?”

                His best friend let out a heavy, sad sigh before nodding. “Yes Captain.”

                “Good. Gideon?”

                The AI’s image appeared before them. “Yes Captain?”

                “Alert the crew and Dr. Snow that SpeedTime will begin in sixty seconds.”

                She nodded and her image disappeared as she followed the order. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Cisco lower himself into his own chair. He secured himself before turning his head towards Bar.

                After a couple moments he spoke, his voice even softer then it had been before. “Don’t lose your optimism Bar. It’s what makes you, you.”

                “Its who I used to be Cisco.” He replied, voice barely above a whisper. He placed his hand on the palm reader as a countdown began to play across the holographic screen. “He’s gone now. You know that.”

                He lifted his hand from the sensor before the other could reply and time around them stopped.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I would love to hear what you think, as comments and kudos are very encouraging!


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